The Fansus, known in-universe as the Mansus, the House of the Serpent, and the Sea-Dragon's Palace is the main setting in which the world of the Fansus occurs, and differs greatly from the House of the Sun from the world of Cultist Simulator
Appearance
The Fansus shares several traits with the Mansus of canon, surrounded by a Wood and located beneath the Glory. Many portions of the Fansus have fallen into disrepair as a result of the War of the Doors and subsequent clashes between the Hours.
History
At the beginning of the world, there was always the House. First came the Gods-from-Stone, and they were followed by the Gods-from-Light. It was the First from Light, The Spark, that encouraged the Gods-from-Stone The Maker and The Anvil, as well as his fellow God-from-Light The Apple-of-the-Eye, to follow him in exploration of the strange world outside of the House they had always known. Upon finding humanity, these Hours dedicated themselves to the education and development of these strange and interesting new forms of life. Many other Hours began to appear during this time, among them the FNORD.
The discovery of humanity attracted the attention of the enigmatic Hour of the Dolomedes, who made a rare excursion from its domain on The Moon to investigate this strange new world. Humans were astounded and awestruck by the existence of such strange and powerful beings, and began revering them as gods. They yearned to be able to visit and experience the plane of existence their new patrons originated from firsthand. But no matter how hard the Spark tried to inspire, nor how fervently the Maker sculpted its subjects, a way could not be found to allow creatures as fragile as humans to travel from their realm to the Mansus.
The solution to this problem was found in the Dolomedes, who was the first among the Hours to possess dominion between opening and joining places. Humanity begged the great spider to use its power to let them visit the Mansus and it relented, on one condition. Always partial to collecting things of value and curious about humanity itself, the Dolomedes agreed to bridge the mortal realms and the Mansus on the condition that mortals it deemed worthwhile through "weighing" their souls would one day be taken away to reside with the spider in its domain.
Humanity accepted the spider's terms, and a bargain was struck. First, the Dolomedes agreed to weave a great bridge over what became known as the sea of sleep to the Mansus, allowing travel between the worlds for lesser beings. Second, to maintain a balance and to signify that mortals were but visitors in the realm of the gods, their bodies would remain behind in the mortal world while their spirits explored its halls. Third, to prevent overcrowding and to ensure mortals did not linger, they would only be allowed within the Mansus for limited time each night. Finally, humanity agreed that when the spider deemed their "time had come", they would go quietly with it fully into the realm of spirits and leave their bodies behind forever. Some would go to the Mansus forever, while those who were "weighed" and found to be of value would go to the domain of the spider.
The bargain struck, the Dolomedes became known to mortals as The Ferryman, who continues to sail to and from the Mansus transporting dreamers and the Dead to this day.
For quite some time all was well, but the spirit of these experiments and expeditions to the mortal world changed abruptly however when the Hours set forth "improving" mortals. Empowering them with slivers of their own power, it was found that a mortal could be made into a being that would both not age and pass to and from the Mansus. The first cracks in the heretofore steadfast relationships between Hours formed when the Maker attempted to make its first Names. One of it's mortal followers actually murdered her sibling in a bid to take the great honor for herself, and was cursed with the wretched form of The Cuckoo for her trouble. After this incident, the Hours became more wary of mortals and the Maker went so far as to never make Names again.
The dual discovery of the ability to bestow immortality to mortals and kill them prematurely did not please the Ferryman. By bestowing mortals the ability to travel to and from the Mansus and preventing them for reaching the age the spider would collect them at, the Ferryman felt its fellows had conspired with humanity to cheat it. Incensed, it declared that the deal with humanity was null and void, and set itself to claim all of what it had been owed: humanity itself.
Just when it appeared as though war between the Hours was inevitable, it was at this time The Great Serpent descended from the Glory. Siding with humanity against the Ferryman, the Great Serpent battled the great spider for the souls of mankind. At the climax of their battle, the Serpent demonstrated its mastery of the principle of Knock -a power that before had only belonged to the spider- by tearing the section of the Mansus that was home to the Spider and suspended it halfway between the worlds. Bested both physically and at its own principle, the spider finally yielded to the Serpent.
Victorious over the elder Hour, the Serpent demonstrated great wisdom by offering an olive branch to the spider in the form of a renegotiation of its contract with humanity. The Spider would continue to oversee the transportation of mortals to and from the Mansus, but would never again attempt to interfere in the uplifting of mortals by the other Hours. In return, souls that died prematurely either through accidents or at the hand of another would be subject also to the Dolomedes' judgement, and it would be able to negotiate new deals with mortals on an individual basis.
After demonstrating both great strength and restraint in its dealings with the Ferryman, the other Hours accepted the supremacy of the Great Serpent, who came to be revered as the Hour of Hours. In the stories of mortals the Mansus gained a new name in honor of its new king: The Sea Dragon's Palace, the House of the Serpent. The Moon, the chunk of Mansus-stone torn from the House remains visible to both worlds to this day, both a monument to the Great Serpent's power as well as a warning to those that would have broken its holy peace.
The Serpent laid the first code of conduct among Hours, and placed upon the Fourth History a truce that no Hour would invade it, so that the Great Serpent's personal demesne would be forever used only as a neutral ground, for the wise serpent knew that if the Hours brought their great power to bear against one another, it would only end in ruin. The Hours established The First City to serve as their meeting ground, and relaxed their grips somewhat on the mortal world.
The peace was not to last, however. Ever a free-spirit, the Great Serpent one day decided to explore Nowhere, and did not return intact. What did return were two Hours; the Hour of the Snake Tail with Appendages, a God-from-Nowhere, and the Hour of the Bright-Delver, a God-from-Blood. To the Snake-tail, reality itself was pain, and it sought only to destroy all that restricted it. To the Delver, reality was beautiful, and the world and the Glory should be available to all to make the world even nicer.
The disappearance of the Great Serpent was felt throughout the Mansus and the Histories. Some Hours felt that their ability to experiment with the world and steer the Histories in the direction they felt they should be going was restricted unduly by the Serpent, and were eager to "rectify" this perceived wrong with the 21st Hour now absent. The Anaconda, which would now become the Hour of stealth, ascended to take up the responsibilities of the Great Serpent and keep the peace.
Relationships between the gods became strained as the tensions mounted, particularly between the Hours of the Maker and the Anvil. The Maker had ever been dedicated to its work to find perfection in its creations, but this obsession deepened as time went on, to the point it no longer seemed to care for the ultimate well-being of those it modified. The Anvil however was dutiful and unyielding in its purpose, and grew disturbed by the lengths its friend seemed willing to go to in pursuit of perfecting its craft.
These tensions grew to a head when a dispute between the Snake-Tail and the Anaconda blossomed into a full-scale war as both Hours used the dispute as a excuse to vent their pent-up frustrations upon each other. The Hours that opposed the war and sought to maintain a sense of order took the names The Doors, while those that sought an upset to the status-quo -by violent means if necessary- became known as The Keys. It is during this time a new Hour The Peacock, emerged from hiding within the Wood and aligned itself with the Keys, for reasons the Snake-Tail and the bird kept to themselves.
For a time the Hours waged bloody war, greatly damaging the House and destroying many of the Gates through which both mortal and god accessed its halls. The battle only ended when the mortals the Snake-Tail and Anaconda had originally fought over were all killed save one. The Hours put down their weapons and ceased their fighting, but the damage to both the Mansus and their relationships with each other had been done.
All was not well, however. The War of the Doors had damaged the fabric of reality, making navigation of the Lower House difficult if not impossible. These rifts shined like a beacon to Nowhere, and new Gods-from-Nowhere emerged. Among them was The Insidious, which began to spread its malign influence throughout the Wood. Also FNORD.
Tensions again began to rise as a previously unheard of phenomenon began to manifest among the Long: defection. En masse many of the seemingly-devoted servants of the Hours of the House began to turn away from their masters, and pledge themselves to the fledgling Hour of the Peacock. Heedless of the complaints of his fellows, the great red bird continued to preach to the congregations of the other gods, luring them away with promises of unparalleled delight and what was described as an "unnatural charm". As the Peacock's power grew to levels unprecedented, inquiries were made as to the origin of this young Hour.
It was the Cuckoo, the oldest shame of the Maker, who finally came forth with the truth of the Young Upstart's true nature. In a shocking act of callousness never seen before or since, the Cuckoo had gathered together and slaughtered the sum total of her cults in the waking world, luring them to her with promises of pleasure and delivering only pain. All in the pursuit of creating a God-from-Blood. The Cuckoo succeeded, and while the infant Hour's guard was lowered immediately attacked and murdered it, seeking to take its power for her own and dominate the other Hours. She was the first to learn the horrifying truth: that the death of a Hour would lead to the creation of a new God-from-Nowhere. Rising again almost as quickly as it was slain, this not-Hour now knew nothing of death, and existed now only to spread its terribly warped notion of joy to the rest of the world. A Broken-Bird.
Some Hours moved to set themselves against this rising monstrosity, but by the time the truth was known, the damage had been done. The Peacock had amassed a wealth of stolen power from the other gods, its forces' numbers swollen innumerably by vast hoards of Long dominated by the Peacock's power and put under his control. This group came to be known as The Choir Unceasing for the unending, obscene cries and otherworldly music they made. Many Keys aligned themselves with this rising power, and for a time the unholy alliance of the Keys and Nowhere reigned dominant over the Upper Mansus.
This came to a head when the Keys' power grew so great as to reach into the Third History, a world in which the power of the Doors had been all but supreme. Across the sea from the empires of the Doors, the Keys leaked into the minds of the people of the Americas, supplanting their gods and leading them into the throes of their bloody worship. Fearing that the Keys would amass enough power to re-ignite the War of the Doors should they gather any more power, the Doors sent the forces of man across the sea to destroy their cults and take the wealth of the native people for their own. This plan failed disastrously when one such conqueror, Hernan Cortes, decided he would rather take power for himself rather than be subordinate to an ungrateful empire far across the sea. With the support of the other conquerors, he donned a golden crown and proclaimed himself the Golden King of the New World.
Shocked and incensed by this affront to their power, both the mortal empires and the Hours of the Doors moved to crush Cortes with their full might. But these efforts were again thwarted as the Hours of the Keys reemerged, offering Cortes unimaginable power in return for his aid. Desperate for allies, the King accepted and the newfound alliance successfully drove the re-claimers from the New World.
The Doors however rallied and managed to turn the tables on the Doors once again however. The Cuckoo, eager for revenge on the Peacock for escaping her, used her unique ability to imitate the other Hours to lure the Golden King into a trap. When the Keys brought Cortez to the Mansus, the Doors lured him instead into a trap.
The Apple-of-the-Eye gave up one of its many titles - The Golden City, El Dorado - that would give Cortez the power he sought, but would also tether him in place, preventing him from leaving his corner of the Mansus. The treasure was placed within the territory of the Peacock and the Keys, so that what was meant to be their ultimate weapon would become their downfall.
While this was happening the Anvil - who had come to be regarded as one of the foremost Doors alongside the Anaconda - approached the Maker for aid. In the name of their old friendship, the Anvil implored the Sculptor aid it once more in the construction of a device that would be instrumental in breaking the Nowhere-Key alliance. Although they'd drifted apart over the years, the Hour of crafting could not resist the temptation to make a one of a kind creation.
Using their power, the Maker and Anvil crafted a gate of living, molten gold, ever-flowing and constantly renewing itself so that it would not be able to be destroyed. The doorway to a prison worthy of gods. The Gilded Gate.
The plan worked flawlessly. Cortez eagerly took the bait, binding himself and his armies to the treasure laid out for him by the Glorious Lie. As he joined with the Golden City and ascended to Hourhood, but in the process bound himself there, and became unable to ever truly leave it. He became a shadow of what he sought to become, Old Tarnished. Convinced that the Keys were the ones that led him to make this terrible mistake, he set armies and all his newfound power against them will all his rage behind them. Simultaneously, the Maker and the Anvil completed the Gilded Gate to bar Cortez from blindy rampaging through the House... with the Maker trapped on the other side.
The Anvil had come to believe the Maker was too dangerous to be allowed to walk the Mansus free, and imprisoned it alongside the other violent Hours behind the Gate. Its heart utterly shattered at this ultimate betrayal, the Maker turned and threw itself into the fray, as the Alliance of Keys turned into a bloody free for all as their corner of the Mansus was consumed with war. The Keys beside the Maker and the Peacock relented and fled, returning to their demesnes while the latter were left to fight behind the gate. The Choir Unceasing was overpowered and slaughtered, forced into hiding with the Broken-Bird in the High Rooms of the House, and there he remains.
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